She drove to the door of the studio and found Del Ferice waiting for her as usual. If Corona had accompanied her, she would have expressed astonishment at finding him; but, as a matter of fact, Ugo always met her there, and helped to pass the time while she was sitting. He was very amusing, and not altogether unsympathetic to her; and moreover, he professed for her the most profound devotion--genuine, perhaps, and certainly skilfully expressed. If any one had paid much attention to Del Fence's doings, it would have been said that he was paying court to the rich young widow. But he was never looked upon by society from the point of view of matrimonial possibility, and no one thought of attaching any importance to his doings. Nevertheless Ugo, who had been gradually rising in the social scale for many years, saw no reason why he should not win the hand of Donna Tullia as well as any one else, if only Giovanni Saracinesca could be kept out of the way; and he devoted himself with becoming assiduity to the service of the widow, while doing his utmost to promote Giovanni's attachment for the Astrardente, which he had been the first to discover. Donna Tullia would probably have laughed to scorn the idea that Del Ferice could think of himself seriously as a suitor, but of all her admirers she found him the most constant and the most convenient. "What are the news this morning?" she asked, as he opened her carriage-door for her before the studio. "None, save that I am your faithful slave as ever," he answered. "I have just seen the Astrardente," said Donna Tullia, still sitting in her seat. "I will let you guess where it was that we met." "You met in the church of the Capuchins," replied Del Ferice promptly, with a smile of satisfaction. "You are a sorcerer: how did you know? Did you guess it?" "If you will look down this street from where I stand, you will perceive that I could distinctly see any carriage which turned out of the Piazza Barberini towards the Capuchins," replied Ugo. "She was there nearly an hour, and you only stayed five minutes." "How dreadful it is to be watched like this!" exclaimed Donna Tullia, with a little laugh, half expressive of satisfaction and half of amusement at Del Fence's devotion. "How can I help watching you, as the earth watches the sun in its daily course?" said Ugo, with a sentimental intonation of his soft persuasive voice. Donna Tullia looked at his smooth face, and laughed again, half kindly. "The Astrardente had been confessing her sins," she remarked. "Again? She is always confessing." "What do you suppose she finds to say?" asked Donna Tullia. "That her husband is hideous, and that you are beautiful," answered Del Ferice, readily enough. "Why?" "Because she hates her husband and hates you." "Why, again?"